A high school football salary cap? Yep, that debate is happening in New Jersey.

Hi everyone,

Week 2 of college football is upon us — and so is college golf merch season. Read on to learn about the piles of branded visors, clubs, bags and more that have become a social media sensation … as well as about an interesting proposal in high school football, some women’s gymnastics news and more.

— Joan

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THE BIG 3

A salary cap in high school football?

As NIL has trickled down, piecemeal, to the high school level, plenty of concerns have arisen. There’s no national standard, and each state has different rules and regulations; in fact, high school athletes are still banned from earning NIL money in several states. In New Jersey, young athletes are profiting off their NIL, and a group of coaches is looking to impose some additional regulation.

According to a story from northjersey.com, coaches from six North Jersey Catholic powerhouses are discussing a “scholarship fund limit” — which would effectively look like a salary cap. The goal would be better competitive balance, but it sounds like implementing such a limit would be tricky, given that the schools all use different financial aid models. Still, it’s something to keep an eye on as the high school game continues to look more like the college game … which continues to look more like the pros.

Inside the wild world of college golf gear

The start of college football season means something totally different in the world of college golf: gear week. Each fall, brands provide piles of equipment — everything from clothes to clubs to bags to tees, almost all of it personalized to each team — and social media is littered with posts of golfers’ hauls. 

It’s consumerism on overdrive. Pro golfers, perhaps more than any other athletes, are walking billboards, advertising brands on visors, hats, polos, towels — you name it, they’re monetizing it. At the college level, brands have had relationships with schools for years, the same way Nike and Adidas make football uniforms and basketball shoes. But now that NIL exists, how do college golfers straddle those potentially competing sponsorships, especially given that they compete, unaffiliated, in non-college tournaments and events? According to this Golfweek story, they have to stay organized. When someone is representing his school, he has to wear the specified gear. But when he’s playing in a non-school tournament or event, he can cover himself whatever other logos he’s being paid to promote. It’s as if a college basketball star could moonlight in the G-League, outfitted in totally different gear. Imagine how big these guys’ closets have to be.

Gymnastics realignment in the Pac-12

There’s women’s gymnastics news in the Pac-12: The Southern Utah Flippin’ Birds will join the rebuilt conference as an affiliate member in the 2026-27 season.

Southern Utah is scheduled to move from the WAC to the Big Sky in 2026, but the school’s women gymnasts have been competing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, given that the WAC doesn’t sponsor the sport. The Flippin’ Birds have qualified for 13 Division I regional championships in a row and are a perennial top-25 finisher in recent years. 

Meanwhile, the Pac-12, before its recent breakdown, was known as a premier conference for gymnastics, producing numerous Olympians. (Oregon’s Jade Carey and Utah’s Grace McCallum have medaled in recent Olympics.) Landing Southern Utah should help the Pac-12 try to preserve that tradition, and the conference alignment is a chance to elevate the Flippin’ Birds exposure.

NIL BLITZ

♦️ The College Sports Commission gave a progress update on Thursday, announcing it had cleared more than 8,300 NIL deals worth a total of almost $80 million.

♦️ UNC guard Seth Trimble used his NIL earnings to buy a Ben & Jerry’s franchise.

♦️ Adidas is gaining another major program: Penn State. The Nittany Lions are switching away from Nike, and the deal comes on the heels of a similar announcement from Tennessee, which signed a 10-year deal with Adidas last month.

♦️ The San Francisco Chronicle wrote a sweeping story about Sacramento State chasing its FBS dream.

♦️ Everybody needs to familiarize themselves with Pudge the cat. He’s got an NIL deal, after all.

♦️ Syracuse’s athletic director shared that the school is only signing athletes to one-year deals because he’s not sure multi-year deals are legally enforceable.

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

If you were a top-ranked high school football quarterback, would you consider a school based on:

• the level of competition - 8%

• whether you’ll get playing time - 5%

• potential revenue sharing/NIL earnings - 7%

• all of the above: you want to ball out and get paid - 79%